As I’ve written about over the past two weeks, there are a number of factors that determine what the temperature of a surface will be beside the energy inherent to it. We need to understand them so that we can make a valid analysis of what is really going on.

Last week we focused on the affect radiational cooling and heating has on surface temperature. If you still have any doubts about this, just go outside in the sun and again on a clear night and observe the great variation of temperatures you find on your thermal images. Many of them are related to radiation.